The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 12

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 12
* * *
Luciel had secured Cain’s permission to watch over Bael.
Her official title was Bael’s personal cook, and in truth, she fed him quite a lot.
It wasn’t just that it was difficult to completely trust food prepared by others, but more importantly, she wanted to directly confirm that he was receiving proper nutrition.
Using the Kitchen was no longer an issue.
“Goodness! Our brilliant cook has arrived? Here, you’ll need the largest counter—this way.”
Jerome came rushing over like an arrow every time she appeared, organizing the ingredients she needed, then stuck close by with all his attention focused on committing her recipes to memory.
Every day at the same hour, Luciel would carry carefully prepared meals to Bael’s room.
The first time she offered him a whole roasted potato, asparagus, and a few succulent slices of beef, Bael shook his head coldly.
“I don’t need it. Go on. I’m not about to collapse in someone else’s room again…….”
His refusal was absolute.
Finally, Aila, who had grown tired of waiting, reached over Bael’s plate and popped a piece of beef into her own mouth.
Bael’s eyes flashed urgently at the sight.
“What—what are you doing? You came to see a patient and now…….”
“I apologize. I skipped meals all day preparing a decoction for your medicine. Oh, this is delicious, isn’t it? The seasoning is absolutely perfect. There was good reason for Cain to rave about it.”
As Aila’s eyes sparkled and she cleaned her plate, Bael could only stare silently, at a loss for words.
On the second day, gnocchi arrived, generously topped with truffle cream sauce.
Bael picked up the fork with a somewhat reluctant air, his eyes watchful, checking whether anyone had entered with her.
“What—if I don’t eat it, Aila will have to force it down herself, won’t she?”
“Aila actually asked me to prepare an extra portion for her, and even gave me pocket money for it…….”
Luciel spoke, but he shook his head dismissively as if he hadn’t heard.
“In any case, I’ll eat it, so don’t bother other people.”
He emptied the plate of gnocchi in no time.
The meat pie she brought the next day, too.
And the sandwich the day after that—cheese and ham piled generous, honey spread on one side of the bread and sauce on the other.
Each time, he pouted and grumbled, yet he left not a single piece uneaten, consuming everything Luciel brought without exception.
* * *
“Lunch.”
On the seventh day, at Luciel’s words, Bael propped himself up on his elbows.
His large, pale blue eyes narrowed with suspicion.
He studied the plate she offered and her face alternately, then murmured quietly.
“……You didn’t put ‘that’ in it, did you? You look tired.”
He was asking whether she had cooked with Mana infused into the dish.
Ever since learning that his collapse had been due to the Buff, Bael had often interrogated her like this.
Luciel let out a small laugh and shook her head firmly.
“I told you no. This is just a regular lunch.”
“You won’t collapse?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Are you worried?”
At Luciel’s casually offered question, Bael’s lips pressed shut.
After a brief silence, he retorted curtly.
“If you collapse on top of me, you’ll be heavy, so it’s obvious.”
For all his words, Bael’s hand was already reaching for the plate Luciel had brought.
Herb-crusted roasted chicken and fluffy young potatoes, fresh vegetable salad and freshly baked rye bread.
Bael began eating slowly, still looking somewhat suspicious.
Though somehow, the faster he seemed to eat as he continued.
“How long will you stay today?”
Bael pushed away the empty plate and asked.
“I’m not sure.”
Luciel answered, her eyes sweeping across the room. The source of the poison remained a mystery.
Not the bedding, not the dishes.
Not the furniture Cain had changed multiple times, and nothing showed up even with the Magical Tool specialized in detecting toxins.
It was frustrating.
Considering that among the few people who came and went in Bael’s room, no one except Bael himself was affected by the poison, it was all the more so.
At least there was this: Bael’s complexion had noticeably improved.
While Luciel was lost in thought, Bael reached down and picked up the sword lying beneath the bed.
The sword that had been there from the first day she saw it. A family heirloom passed down from his father.
The moment the sword hilt touched Bael’s hand, the elegant jeweled rapier gleamed and filled with Mana.
“It’s the practice I always do, so you can stay. It doesn’t matter.”
……
The conventional path for Mana Manipulation was to begin with a medium, then gradually develop the ability to use it with one’s bare body.
However, during training, one still used a medium. Through it, one could see with one’s own eyes the force flowing through the air.
Bael had been rare—at fourteen, he wielded tremendous amounts of Mana with his bare body alone, yet he still kept a training sword at his side.
But Luciel’s brows furrowed.
“Your stamina won’t allow it, I said.”
“What?”
Bael turned his gaze sharply toward her.
“Why should I listen to you?”
He shot back stubbornly.
“I’m finally getting my body to obey me again, so don’t try to stop me.”
Luciel’s brows furrowed.
Cain had entered the palace on imperial summons, and Aila had gone out to find external apothecaries.
The Duke had not yet returned from the Domain and was absent from the Mansion.
In other words, there was no one to stop him.
“If you don’t listen, I’ll only make you foods you hate.”
“Does something tasteless even exist for my palate?”
“I’ll make you broth with the juice squeezed out and the whole root of butterbur ground in, mixed with underripe persimmons that pucker the mouth. Gentian tea to cleanse your palate. Right?”
“……!”
Just hearing it made Bael’s face pale with alarm, as if he had goosebumps.
“……I’ll still do it.”
“And I’ll take away the honey Aila drizzles on your medicine.”
“……Am I a child?”
He flinched again, then carefully composed his expression and shot back.
He was a child, so what.
“This is absurd. Neither your uncle nor your grandfather care, so what right do you have to stop me?”
Bael turned his head sharply and began putting weight on his legs, sword in hand.
“Stop.”
Bael did not stop.
His legs trembled faintly, and watching this, Luciel’s expression turned to shock.
Was he insane.
To have succeeded in moving legs paralyzed by poison, even slightly.
He must have practiced day after day, relentlessly, after experiencing the sensation of moving leg muscles from eating a soup laced with the Buff, reviving the muscle memory.
It was utterly unrealistic progress. Impossible for any human.
The problem was he was burning through his own stamina to that degree.
Snap—
The blade flashed silver, and the same-colored pattern appeared on the back of Bael’s hand.
“……!”
Before Luciel could even comprehend what was happening, he drew in the gathered Mana and poured it into his legs, bending his knees.
“Unh…….”
“Stop!”
Luciel urged him again, but he did not stop, gathering Mana once more.
This time his ankle twitched.
“Gasp! Cough!”
“I told you to stop!”
Watching his face go pale with pain, Luciel hurriedly seized the sword and dropped it to the floor.
“Haah, hah…….”
Bael exhaled roughly. His ghostly pale face looked like a specter.
“Just a little more and I think I could have put weight on it…….”
……
Luciel, supporting his arm, stared at him intently.
A cold anger churned from deep within her stomach.
“……Why?”
“Do you actually want to get better?”
“What are you saying? Of course I do…….”
“Then is it because you don’t trust me, or Cain, or Aila that you won’t listen?”
……
Only then did Bael slowly raise his head and meet her gaze directly.
Luciel’s eyes fixed on him were utterly cold.
“Look, all of this effort means nothing without your will.”
Suddenly Bael’s face convulsed with shame.
“Lacking in will? Me?”
“If you truly had will, you would know how to endure.”
……
“You would know how to trust and follow the people helping you get better. Not use your body recklessly like this.”
“……!”
“I’m going to be direct. Whether you trust me or not—you decide it now.”
She spoke without a trace of a smile.
“I’m saying this clearly: if you don’t trust me, I won’t come anymore.”
Bael bit his lip hard.
“……What do you know.”
He muttered.
“Why I have to go this far, you…….”
Perhaps from frustration, red color returned to his pale face.
“Like I have anything else I can do?”
……
As if she had struck the heart of the matter, Bael’s eyes trembled roughly.
“I understand that much. I’ve been there too.”
When she was small, the Red Moon rose, and her mother disappeared for months at a time, leaving Luciel behind.
When the neighbors who were paid to care for her took that money and fled in the dead of night.
She would practice using Mana the way her mother had taught her.
Only when she felt even a little stronger could the overwhelming anxiety be bearable.
“If I didn’t do it like this, my very existence felt negated. Like I alone would be left in this world and simply disappear. So I kept driving myself harder and harder.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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